That Heart would beat for a certain time (maybe 10 seconds) and after that stops beating. In these first 10 seconds when the heart is still beating it would be a collectable (or should I say eatable) item that will have certain effect(s). After ten seconds when the Heart has stopped beating, it becomes useless for the player. And the bigger the monster was, from which the heart came, the stronger that effect will be.
Possible effects:
1. Upon collecting the heart the player gets a certain amount of health (maybe 5 points for an ordinary grunt, 30 for a baron of hell)
2. Upon collecting the heart for some time the player is berserking and invincible; again, for a grunt-heart that effect will last short, for a heart from a bigger monster the effect will last longer.
3. The blue heart from a caco could make the player having electric fists for some time
If done properly and carefully balanced, this mechanism could be a valuable gameplay element because when the player is fighting a horde of monsters from a relative secure place and a monster spawns such a heart, the player is faced with the decission to either stay where he is, in his relative security and waste the heart or to go for the risc and catch the heart while facing a more difficult combat situation. The player had to quickly assess the situation and act accordingly.
Moreover gibbing would have a real gameplay meaning. Even in the original Doom, monsters could be conventionally killed or gibbed. But for the gameplay it did not make a difference. This is so also in brutal Doom. But with this mechanism gibbing becomes a real gameplay-relevant mechanism and the player would prefer gibbing over normal killing because it can give him a real advantage. I think this would fit wonderfully to a gore mod like Brutal Doom
The Heart would be collected just by walking over it, like any other item. An animation might be played where you can see the hand of the marine holding the heart and bringing it to the mouth, followed by an eating sound – nicely devilish
Have you seen the Movie “Angel Heart” with Mickey Rourke? There is the devil eating the heart of his victim; so as we have the Hell/Devil theme in Doom this would also fit nicely.The Heart would not spawn everytime an enemy is gibbed but maybe 10% of it, otherwise it may be too often. Gibbing already dead bodies would not spawn a pumping Heart, only a non-pumping and that would have no relevance for the player.
Later on one could refine the effect and let the Heart pump in decreasing intensity before it stops beating. And the sooner the player gets hold of it, the stronger the effect will be.
The Heart could glow a bit while beating, just in order to communicate to a new player, that this is collectable. And of course, like other gibs, the Heart can also attach to walls and ceilings...
What do you think? Looking forward to feedback
